Macbeth’s thoughts and actions (Eg. soliloquies) in Act 1 reveal many aspects of his character. Fill in the
table below with evidence from your text and the helping words given in the box
below. You can use words some of the words below, but are advised to use your own words.
Brave Respected Devoted to his wife Ambitious Sense of duty and conscience Proud Vivid imagination Deceitful
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Scene
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Evidence
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Significance:
What this tells
you about Macbeth’s character
|
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Sc 2
P26
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“For brave Macbeth--well he
deserves that name--
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd
steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell
to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And
fix'd his head upon our battlements.”
“they
were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
so they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe”
|
Brave/
Courageous
Respected
Determined to
win the battle
Does not fear
death
Ruthless on
battlefield (warrior-like portrayal of M)
|
|
Sc 3
P40
P42
P40
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“Two
truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.”
“If
good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are
less than horrible imaginings:
My
thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that
function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing
is
But what is not.”
“Glamis,
and thane of Cawdor:
The
greatest is behind”
|
He does desire
to be King (ambitious)
Ambitious (use
of personification)
Vivid
imagination
Sense of
conscience; not naturally deceitful (hence, making M terrified at the thought
of murder)
Ambitious
|
|
Sc 4
P46
P48
|
“The
service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself.”
“The
Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else
o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your
fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which
the eye fears, when it is done, to see.”
|
Deceitful—pretending
to be polite and respectful
Ambitious;
starting to scheme and plot
|
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Sc 5
P50
P54
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“This
have I thought good to deliver
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised
thee.”
“We will speak further”
|
Devoted to his
wife
Has a
conscience/ not naturally evil
|
|
Sc 7
P60
P62
P62
|
“this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredience of our poison'd chalice
To our
own lips.”
“I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on th'other.”
“We will proceed no further in
this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have
bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest
gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.”
“If we should fail?”
“Bring
forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should
compose
Nothing but males.”
“I am settled, and bend
up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”
“False
face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
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Sense of
conscience (fearful of retribution)
-
Ascertain L. M.’s proverb “Poor cat in the adage’
Fearful of
consequences
Cautious
Holds his good reputation
in high regard
Cautious/
Cowardly
Admires
his wife
Easily
manipulated by his wife
Greedy
for power
Deceitful
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Homework for both 2B and 2D: COMPLETE PAGES 5,6,7.
